Woman Sues Make Up Company for False Advertising

Lancome(MONSEY, N.Y.) -- Rorie Weisberg, an Orthodox Jewish woman in Monsey, N.Y., takes advertising claims seriously. So when she read copy for Lancôme’s Teint Idole Ultra 24H foundation, which is supposed to stay on for an entire day and night of “lasting perfection,” she believed it.

In April, Weisberg shelled out $45 plus tax for a one-ounce bottle on Lancôme’s website, she says in her suit. When her face didn’t remain fresh and dewy for 24 hours, she got so upset she sued Lancôme and its parent company L’Oreal.

Lancôme’s “advertising and marketing campaign and labeling claims are false and misleading because the Product does not stay on the skin for 24 hours,” she alleges in her class action lawsuit. “In reality, the Product does not live up to the claims made by Lancôme.”

According to the complaint, filed April 30 in U.S. District Court on behalf of Weisberg and unidentified others who have been harmed by the “deceptive and misleading advertising messages,” Weisberg purchased the make-up specifically to wear to her oldest son’s bar mitzvah in June. Jewish law forbids women from applying make-up from sundown on Friday until nighttime on Saturday. Weisberg had hoped the long-lasting make-up would help with her “dual objectives of compliance with religious law and enhancement to her natural appearance,” the suit says.

After testing it out from sundown Thursday to sundown Friday, Weisberg was decidedly unimpressed. The product made her skin look “cakey,” and by Friday morning, her skin was shiny, “particularly around the nose,” the suit maintains. By 3 p.m., the suit claims, no foundation remained on her skin, which she discovered when she tried to remove it with a white cotton ball.

This, she claims, was distressing on many levels. Weisberg and others “have been damaged and suffered an ascertainable loss by purchasing the Product, which is sold at an inflated price,” the suit, which seeks unspecified damages, claims.

Neither Weisberg nor her lawyer returned interview requests.

But Stacy Mackler, a spokesperson for Lancôme, told ABC News that the company “strongly believes that this lawsuit has no merit and stands proudly behind our products” and will “strenuously contest these allegations in court.”